The commandos came under the cover of darkness. It was mid-February in Laghman province, just east of Kabul in mountainous eastern Afghanistan. A team of U.S. Army Special Forces swept in together with an elite unit of the Afghan police, known as the Provincial Response Company. But this time the target was not a Taliban.… Keep reading →

When British Prime Minister David Cameron meets with President Obama this week, their discussions about Syria, Afghanistan, and Iran will dominate headlines. Also important, though less high profile, is the two allies’ preparations for NATO‘s May Chicago Summit, which will seek to bolster the alliance’s strained mission in Afghanistan and develop plans to maintain essential… Keep reading →

The Stuxnet computer worm that damaged Iranian nuclear facilities – widely suspected to be an Israeli or even U.S. covert action – was a model of a responsibly conducted cyber-attack, said the top lawyer for the U.S. military’s Cyber Command, Air Force Col. Gary Brown. By contrast, the Chinese stance, which holds that the international… Keep reading →

The Chinese National People’s Congress has announced its new defense budget, offering the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) yet another double-digit increase, with funding up 11.2 percent this time. Officially, this amounts to a $106 billion defense budget, although most observers believe that China’s real defense budget is probably twice that much, if not more. In… Keep reading →

The Army will test a new system designed to lessen the worst danger military helicopter crews and their passengers have faced during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — blinding sand, dust or snow that can cause pilots to get disoriented and crash. Sierra Nevada Corp. thinks its Helicopter Autonomous Landing System (HALS), which the… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: The Federal Aviation Administration will publish a notice in the Federal Register on Friday asking for public comment on how it should set up six new ranges Congress has ordered the agency to create where the military and others can test technologies that might allow drones to fly safely in the same airspace used… Keep reading →

Breaking Defense’s February 29 piece, “Hill Turns Up Heat On White House Over ‘Law Of The Sea’” gives a good presentation of the reasons supporters believe the 1982 Law of the Sea Treaty (LOST) should be ratified, but it doesn’t talk about why the treaty was deep-sixed some 30 years ago — and has remained… Keep reading →

Since 911, the U.S. military has invested huge amounts of money in protecting troops, buying add-on armor kits for everything from the humble Humvee to the massive M1 tank. But the spread of smart weapons to Third World forces, both rogue states and guerrillas, may be outpacing the Pentagon’s ability to counter them, warns a… Keep reading →

CAPITOL HILL: The congressional fight over the fate of Northrop Grumman’s 18 Global Hawk Block 30s is on, led so far by Rep. Norm Dicks on the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. “The idea we would spend all this money to buy them and then put them in a hangar is just unacceptable,” said Dicks, ranking… Keep reading →

WASHINGTON: Jim Clapper, the first Director of National Intelligence to order budget cuts across the intelligence community, may be leaving his post this fall. Or, then again, he may not. At this stage, all is rumor. So far, we’ve got three people with good intelligence connections saying Clapper is likely on the way out. We’ve… Keep reading →